Artists and academics have tried to understand and describe color for centuries. About 2,400 years ago, Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle theorized that color existed in the form of rays sent down from the heavens by God. It wasn’t until the Renaissance in the 1300’s that more sophisticated models and systems were developed.
To define a model of primary colors you have to know something about the environment in which the model is used. It just so happens that with photography we are working in an environment of additive light. In other words, we are adding light together to made different colors. In this environment the primary colors are red, green and blue - commonly called RGB color.
